


"Hello."

by kinpika



Series: time, and time again [4]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: A little bit of dancing, F/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Post-Endgame, Some spoilers I think, There's some feelings too ig
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 10:59:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10989540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinpika/pseuds/kinpika
Summary: “I’ll never say no to company… especially yours.” Despite the words, his eyes are on the bottle in her hands, as if speaking directly to it.Feigning offence, Ariel holds it closer to her chest. “And here I thought you just wanted me for my looks. But now I know the real reason.”Reyes finds himself closing his eyes a bit more than usual, following her lead a little more than usual, smiling a lot more than usual. And... it's not wholly a bad thing, he thinks.





	"Hello."

“My, my. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

Despite the way he has his arms spread over the back of the lounge, Reyes is fiercely fighting a grin. And losing terrifically. Ariel, for her efforts, holds out her spoils, wiggling her eyebrows. “I was in the neighbourhood, thought I’d drop by.”

“I’ll never say no to company… especially yours.” Despite the words, his eyes are on the bottle in her hands, as if speaking directly to it. 

Feigning offence, Ariel holds it closer to her chest. “And here I thought you just wanted me for my looks. But now I know the real reason.”

Finally, Reyes pushes himself to his feet. As he walks the short distance to her, it was like the world slowed down a fraction. Vaguely, he recalls Ariel talking about biotics giving her this, an edge in battle. Now, it was just caused by how her lips twisted into a smile, eyes crinkling at the edges, and how long it had been since he had seen her hair down.

Reaching for her, Reyes finds her waist, nudging her back towards the door. When she laughs as her back meets the metal, he truly smiles. His fingers do wrap around the neck of the bottle, however, yet Ariel was quicker than most people gave her credit. With a blink, it was out of his hands, held up over head head. 

“Uh uh. Not yet.” There was an expectant look on her face, and with a click of his tongue, Reyes remembered his manners.

“Of course, so rude of me…” And he kisses her, gently, warmly. Welcoming and comforting. Remarkably, always one of their chaster kisses, parting with a soft smile that was mirrored on the other’s face. “I missed you.”

Quickly, she kisses him again, a touch of lips that was gone just as fast as it arrived. “Missed you, too.” 

With that, she turns out of his grasp, relinquishing the gift and glasses as she went. Setting them down, table for two. Reyes wasn’t sure what he did in a past life to deserve this — and was absolutely sure there was no anniversary he had missed. Accepting the offered glass, they toast and drink. A hot burn down the back of his throat, watching Ariel over the rim of his drink. Not that he was suspicious, but she was always up to something. 

Reyes turns down the next glass, and knew she would do so as well. The grimace on her face gave her away, and Reyes has to stop from chuckling at that. They both knew she only drank the whiskey for him. And there was not a lot in the way of liquor in Heleus, so despite his best efforts, Reyes had yet to find something comfortably to her taste. 

“Ariel,” he starts, hands reaching to cup her face. Trace the tattoo, or scars, or whatever else he had deemed his personal favourite for that particular night. Several times over, for each day they were apart (but he doesn’t tell her this, just like she doesn’t tell him that she keeps a hand on him during the night, to make sure he doesn’t leave). 

She stops him, just shy of the tips of his fingers meeting her face. “We should dance.” Such a comment — a damn near order — stumps him, Reyes staring lamely at the way Ariel holds out her hand.

“We should _what_?”

“You heard me.” Hand still raised, she shakes it, somewhat expectantly. Reyes’ hands meet his hips, and he studies her, brow raising as he notes how insistent she was. With a sigh, he relents and does take the offered limb, hands sliding together perfectly, easily, the other reaching around to hold her waist. Ariel’s hand greets his shoulder with a firm squeeze of hello, and Reyes lets her lead to whatever music she was hearing. 

He also finds himself asking the question on the tip of his tongue. “I thought you said you couldn’t dance?” Palm flush with the small of her back, he pushes her into him, holding her there. Stilling their movements for a long enough moment to actually make her pause. 

Ariel rests cheek against his shoulder, and with a laugh goes: “I was lying.”

Blinking, Reyes takes a full minute to absorb her words. His head falls back in laughter, shaking them both as he goes. “Truly… well, Ariel, that’s—”

“Shh, come on. One, two, here we go.”

Eventually, he simmers down to chuckles, as they slowly sway back and forth to music not heard.

Reyes can’t pinpoint the exact moment when his hands slid from her grasp, to just simply holding her against him. Another name for a hug. So long, so long since he had been able to hold Ariel like this, squeezed back as if she knew what he was feeling too — Reyes wouldn’t doubt for a second that she knew, she always _did_. 

“I missed you,” he repeats, a little louder, a little more from the heart. 

“I missed you, too.” Her words are muffled, originating from somewhere between his collarbone and throat. Reyes knows it wasn’t possible, maybe, with the layers he wore, but he swore he could feel her smiling. 

Slowly, but surely, they relax, part. The need to make a comment, perhaps about the appropriate time before letting go, stuck in his throat. A knee-jerk reaction that still hadn’t quite died (the expectation for Ariel to turn, leave, still beneath his bones). Their noses brush. Her eyes slide shut. Just like always. Reyes couldn’t afford to let his eyes shut, not yet, maybe in another year. He just wanted to always be sure.

Her hands don’t leave his shoulders, just as his don’t leave her waist. “Hey,” she starts, eyes crinkling at the corners. Beautiful.

“Hey yourself.”

Teeth show when she smiles as Reyes finally slides his hands up to cup her face. “Another drink, perhaps?”

After all, there was a bottle sitting quite lonely on the table. A shame to waste. A distraction by any other name. Perhaps Ariel reads through the attempt, or perhaps he had managed to mislead her a little more than usual. Whatever the case, she steps back entirely, hands dropping from him to rise above her head as she stretched. “I actually had something else in mind.”

The way the mood switches instantly catches Reyes off guard. And to think, he had been so careful with times, places, them. “Oh, this I have to hear.” But he bites into the offer, because he had missed her in more ways than the word likely allowed. 

“Downstairs.”

“Down— _downstairs_?” Well, that stopped his hand short from reaching for her once more. Reyes simply frowned, eyes jumping to the door, the other side. Tartarus was in full swing on this particular night, so no doubt she would’ve had to have push through crowds to get to his room. And she wanted to go _back down there_? “May I ask why?”

“To dance.” So simple, like Reyes had completely missed all intentions.

Rubbing his face, he mumbles despite himself. “Of course. What _else_ could you want to go there for?” 

“Reyes, I haven’t been to a club since the Milky Way.”

“I’d hardly call Tartarus a ‘club’.” It honestly reminded him of Afterlife, except a little more desperate (but Reyes never told Kian that, in fear of losing his room and free drinks).

“Better than that shithole on the Nexus. That's so… _blue_.”

“I heard the drinks aren’t too bad.”

“Well, they better not be. Had me running around collecting plants to ‘experiment’ with.” Reyes smiles when Ariel makes quotation marks with her fingers. Ah, there was his reliable Pathfinder, even helping make drinks in some unexplored galaxy. 

“How terrible.”

“The worst. A plant on Havarl nearly ate my hand when I tried to get a flower.”

“The things you’ve had to suffer through.”

Ariel snickers at that, shoving his shoulder gently as he began to creep closer. “Stop teasing. Come on, just _one_ song. Or two, if they do the whole rolling-into-each-other-thing!”

Shrugging off her jacket, Ariel doesn’t give him any time to answer, and throws it on the lounge without a backwards glance. Takes his hand in the time it took for it to fall. Reyes watches, perhaps in a certain amount of awe, as she kisses his knuckles, eyes heavy. There were words to describe what she wanted — openly showed — him in that one look alone, but Reyes could not think of them and instead blindly followed where she led.

Out the door, to the upstairs area of Tartarus. The night was going off, bodies filling both levels that Reyes had to wonder how Kian was coping. Tartarus had become remarkably fuller in the passing few months. Apparently, those who remembered dirtier places like Chora’s Den flocked to the establishment like moths to a flame. Kian was not one to turn down business, but Reyes had been told about how there had been lines outside the door, every so often. Never having a reason to join the crowds, Reyes is mindful of hands, limbs, smiles. Eyes following outlines of bodies, trying to see the shape of weapons under clothes, a nervous tick to set one person apart from the rest.

It had been quite a while since the last attempt on his life. And just as he had kept that quiet, he would not appreciate Ariel being witness to the next — lord could only imagine what the woman would do to the poor person who decided to cause havoc, especially with a slip of liquor in her system. 

There is pressure on his fingers, and Reyes takes his eyes off the crowd, finding Ariel between the bodies. She smiles, all the way up to her eyes, and she’s seeing him, yet everyone else at the same time, just not in the same way he was. Like her shoulders drop, and her stance relaxes. Comfort in a crowd. Reyes learned something new everyday. 

But Ariel mouths an “are you okay?” that gets him somewhere, warming up places inside of him Reyes had forgotten about. Staggering, to remember that despite everything, she cared and loved him. 

Nodding, Reyes returns the action she had only just performed, lips meeting the back of her hand. Enough of an answer, perhaps, as her expression lightens once more. 

Ariel leads him, fingers firmly threaded together. As they weave between people, faces disappearing under bright lights, chopping and changing, two different people. Reyes wasn’t sure who he was supposed to be tonight, maybe just another nameless man, yet that didn’t bother him as much as it should. Few recognised him, stationed and ready for everything. Caution on the err of overprotectiveness, but always a necessity. 

If she felt a change in him again, she didn’t address it again. Simply heaved him around her, so they were face to face, lower level, in the thick of it. Arms slung loosely around his neck, Reyes doesn’t miss a beat, hands finding her hips, fingers stretching around to press in teasingly against the sides of her ass.

When they sway this time, there’s a little more urgency, a roll of hips that’s direct and honest. Maybe this said something about her, or him, or the both of them. Reyes doesn’t dwell on that thought, just pulls her closer, thigh between her legs as they grind in time to the music. 

Reyes wishes he had taken more than his gloves off, with how he feels the slip of skin under her painfully thin shirt. 

“It’s been so long since I’ve been able to do this,” is what he thinks he hears through the music as she turns in his arms, back against chest. And he wants to ask Ariel so much about herself, what she did, who she _was_ , before the Initiative took them away. They feed each other bits of information when they can, face to face. Carefully broken down facts, like how she likes the colour green, and he’s a fan of jazz. They’ll get to the big things when they get to it. At least, that’s what Ariel tells him (and she tells him a lot of things, reassurances, sometimes accompanied with a pat to the cheek if she’s feeling particularly smarmy). 

“Reyes…”

Blinking, Reyes looks down, to where Ariel has tipped her head back. She’s languid and loose in his arms, hips swaying back and forth in time with the beat. “You’re thinking too much.” 

“Can’t help it.” And he can’t. Always thinking, always worrying. Planning. Careful. Reyes once told her he had a three drink limit when working. That was a lie too.

She pouts, and it’s adorably pathetic that he presses a kiss to her forehead. “I’m sorry, you know how it is.”

“I do. I do, just…”

Fingers tilt her chin back further, and it was not the best kiss he had ever given her, upside down not being nearly as romantic as the movies had told him. But it has the right effect on her, Ariel practically turning to putty in his hands — he would have to keep that in mind for next time. 

“I’m going to get a drink,” he murmurs against her ear when they part. “Want one?”

Ariel shakes her head, and Reyes releases her. Stepping back, he takes no more than three steps before she moves on to dancing with another person nearby, hands raised and smile on her face. Completely turning then, Reyes makes a concerted effort to weave through the crowd to the bar, noticing how people turn to him, nods through the crowd, a focus on where Ariel stood. Even for a moment, she would be fine. 

At the bar, he sees Kian notice him. In an attempt to ignore the very pointed look he receives, Reyes, runs a finger over the bars, and continues to lean on the counter until the man comes over. 

“Are you not feeling well?” Kian asks, as sincere as a man could be when he had a smile from ear to ear. If Reyes was in any other mood, he might’ve switched profiles, narrowed his eyes and said something vaguely threatening. But this wasn’t some lackey amongst the Collective. 

Instead, from where he stood, he could see Ariel amongst the crowd, apparently having made a friend with an asari. “Just one drink, please.”

Kian snorts, but gets him his drink regardless. Behind him, other attendants work, swiftly moving back and forth. Reyes believes that Kian was grateful for a moment to still, and as Reyes raises the glass to his lips, he pauses. “What now?”

“Oh, nothing.” He’s smirking, arms crossed, the look of a man who knew more than enough. “Get back to her before she changes her mind.”

“Who are you, my mother?”

Laughter, barked at the ceiling, and Kian leaves him with a wave of the hand. They would talk at length about this later, no doubt, even if Reyes didn’t want to. Replacing his drink on the bar, the empty glass is whisked from his hand, an indicator to leave. It wouldn’t surprise if Kian said that he wasn’t allowed anything else, so Reyes simply pushes himself off. Between the heads bowed over the bar, he spies Kian giving him a raise of the brows, a ‘hurry up’, and Reyes snorts. Fine. 

It’s relatively harder to make his way back into the crowd, Reyes finds, noticing that the closer he dove in, the warmer it got. If he had a chance, he would’ve lasted longer beside the bar, nice and cool, simply watching Ariel from back there. Just his luck he wouldn’t be able to find her now (a pause, as he wonders when he started thinking about ‘luck’, as that was Ariel’s thing to fuss over).

Interrupting his attempt to look for her was a hand on the small of his back. A “hey, stranger” in his ear. Twirling around him to appear before him, Ariel Ryder, sweaty and bright eyed and beaming. Reyes doesn’t hesitate to cup her cheeks, unable to deny the small amount of relief. 

And then he finds himself shouting over the music: “Kian asked how you got me out of ‘my room’.”

Ariel laughs at that, peering over Reyes’ shoulder towards the bar. “What did you tell him?”

“That you’re terrible.” Leaning down, he kisses her cheek. “Crafty.” Her other. “Calculating.” The tip of her nose. “The worst.” Their lips meet, Ariel grinning into the kiss.

“Such a compliment, Mr Vidal.”

“I try my best.”

When they part, Reyes notices the way she looks at him, and can feel himself frowning. “What?” 

“You’re not… comfortable down here, are you?” He had not gotten used to how she could read him so well some days, and not others. Today must have been one of the former. Perhaps she didn’t understand exactly why he was  uncomfortable — as she put it — but she wasn’t far off from the feeling.

“It’s fine,” he reassures her, hoping his smile wasn’t as frozen on his face as it felt.

“Reyes, come on. I got my song in.”

“I don’t want to interrupt…” And he didn’t, truly. He remembered her comment before, about having missed ‘this’. Only just recently had things begun to quieten enough, that her visits to Kadara came a little more frequent — and in saying that, it was still not nearly as much as what either of them would’ve liked. 

Ariel doesn’t give him much of an option of course, a little more forceful in the way of dragging this time. As they weave back through the crowd once more, Reyes notes that there seemed to be more people than when they had first ducked out. Perhaps he should ask for a larger presence, just in case. Eyes meet other Collective members. No, that wouldn’t be the best course of action, perhaps. Keema had warned him that such things were attracting attention, and that it would be best to dissuade rumours, surrounding both him and the Pathfinder. 

Reyes sighs at that. This was not the best time to consider the fallout from strengthening a guard in a bar. His grip slackens a little, and Ariel finally turns around just as they were about to enter the room. 

“Are you okay?”

“That’s the second time you have asked me that tonight,” he notes, pointedly, door unlocking as they near.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Never.” And he kisses her again, out of distraction or otherwise. Reyes figures he just likes the feeling of her lips under his, walking them backwards, door sliding shut behind them. Not the first time he’s thought of outright telling Ariel his thoughts, concerns. Collective business, normally kept to being filtered through to Keema, and distilled a little further from there. But he doesn’t want to think of intimacy, especially from _her_ , as a distraction.

One day, Reyes would tell her everything. But right now, Ariel was keening under him, pressing up against him, almost making him forget. And never let it be said that Ariel was a patient woman, as she’s the first one to hit the lock. His hands are on her, squeezing, teasing, finding the seam of her jeans that sat between her cheeks, and pressing it so firmly she gasps, fingers curling into the front of his jacket. 

Reyes knows encouragement where he feels it, shrugging off his jacket when she pushes at his shoulders. Hands find the seals for his armour, and despite Reyes appreciating just how close she was pressing up against him, attempting to pull the one of the clutches down, he laughs. “Allow me.” Reaching behind himself, he knew the trick to this suit, and tempts it open (makes a note to replace it at some point, too). Ariel lets off a noise in the back of her throat, as Reyes pulls the rest of it off, armour meeting the floor. Always such an odd sensation, yet he’s not allowed to dwell, when her mouth is at the hollow of his throat, hands pulling his shirt free.

He likes her hands. Her fingers. How she concentrates her biotics there, as a hand splays low over his belly. It does tickle — he told her that once, to her amusement — but when it’s like this, feeling the lazy trail spreading from the direction she’d pointed, it was _teasing_. Warming. Concentrated, tiny mass effect field spreading over his skin, making the hairs stand up on end. Reyes sighs when she palms him through the front of his pants, feeling the ripples there, a groan following when her other hand goes higher, reaching his chest, thumb flicking a nipple.

Popping the button on her jeans, Reyes follows the band, shimmying them down with each shake of her hips. Hands on his shoulders as Ariel concentrates her weight on one foot, he watches her attempt to kick off her boots, and settles for just picking her up. She squeaks, nails digging in, and Reyes takes her the short distance over to the lounge. 

“Shall I?” Purposely kneels between her legs, already pulling a boot off. 

Ariel settles to wave her other foot at him once the first one was free. “Please.” Reyes’ can feel his lips curl, and does as asked, eagerly pulling off her jeans the moment her boots were off, dropping them off to the side. 

Mouths his way up her legs, special attention to her calves and knees. He knew she was particularly tender around there, something about the kick off into a charge when she was fighting that was affecting the muscle. It always made her sigh a little more happily whenever he spent time around this area, and Reyes smiles against her skin. Amazing how receptive she was, at the best of times, but tonight she seemed to be a little more wired. 

Barely, he brushed over her thighs, lips following fingers, before he’s stopped. Ariel was biting her lip, teeth worrying skin, and Reyes can’t quite decipher what her eyes are telling him. Until she pulls him from the floor, an immediate surge upward, and Reyes blinks, back against the lounge. Well, that was different.

Blinking at her, Reyes opens his mouth to speak, maybe something charming, maybe something witty, but she’s pulling at his jeans. Button popped, easing them down. Lifting his ass, Reyes helps in pushing them down to mid thigh. Control. A flexible thing. Ariel was a little harried in the way she was handling him, and Reyes tries to catch her hand, tries to kiss her. 

“Look at me,” he says, when she’s pulling her hair up into a ponytail. “Ariel, please.”

Finally she stops. Looks at him. No signs of loss of nourishment. Reyes had not seen her take anything apart from one small glass of whiskey. Pupils dilated, but that was expected in this situation. Nothing physical told him that she was off, so he settled for reaching for her hand. “You ask me if I’m okay, but are you?”

Ariel swallows. “Yeah, I am.”

“They why rush?”

“I…” Trails off with a glance to the side. One of several things. Reyes had a feeling it had to do with something outside Kadara, outside his world, and he turns her to face him once more.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. Honest. Some political bullshit and—I don’t really wanna talk about it when you’ve got your dick out, Reyes.”

Letting his eyes drop, Reyes notes with a raised brow he was still at half mast. “I can put it away if you want to talk?”

Unexpected laughter, and Ariel shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. It’s—” her laughing seemed to dissolve some of the tension in her, and when she looks at him again, it’s a little more focused. A little clearer, a little like clouds parting to reveal the sky. “Reyes, I wanna have sex with you.”

“Only if you’re sure.” Still offering an out, but he’s stroking himself regardless. Feelings were still confused, but she turns her body towards him, not looking at him like he wasn’t entirely there anymore. And Ariel called _him_ hard to read — well, if he hadn’t met his match. 

“I’m sure.”

When she touches him, there’s an ebb and flow to her work. A reliance on biotics, that made him tingle and go numb but feel every nerve ending all at once. Specifically centred on his cock was another feeling altogether, as Reyes borders, unsure and hot and moaning behind his hand as she works him, hands twisting, thumbing the slit. “A-Ariel…” always so quick with her handiwork. They were opposites in that, as Reyes enjoyed drawing things out with her, taking his time on working her until she shorted out the room as she screamed. 

That thought alone makes him go warm, low in his belly. 

“My jacket…” Ariel was going to have her way with him, apparently, and Reyes reaches for the abandoned piece of clothing. She didn’t appear to have brought a pouch with her this time, but he was always a little too prepared in the off chance they met each other somewhere inconvenient. 

She grabs it for him, going to the pocket they both knew well enough, pulling free what he was after. “Want me to?”

“I can. Just give me a moment.” To give him time to recover from her and those magic hands. 

Ariel hovers over him, knees either side of his thighs. His hands work himself, always prepared, condom and lube, but his eyes never leave hers. Maybe it’s the twitch in his cheek, as he notes that perhaps it may not have been the best course of action, being so close, that gives him away, enough for her to pull his hands free of himself. Reyes watches through lidded eyes as she pulls her underwear aside, guiding him into her. 

As Reyes releases a breath of air he hadn’t known to be holding in when she sits completely in his lap, that’s all the pause he gets. She tightens around him, squeezing that it’s enough to make him choke, and he thinks that he hears a giggle against his ear. Wicked. Oh, how he wants to just pick Ariel up, push her up against some surface and have his way with her. Muddling sorts of thoughts that disappear with each roll of her hips, each spark that flits across her skin. How she continues to hold his shirt up, nails digging into his chest, leaving little half moons in their wake. Sex was always one hell of a distraction.

A corona encases her, warping her face. Reyes had never been with a biotic before, simply because the few human ones in the Milky Way were either Alliance military, or always part of some crazy cult on the news. He had seen the statistics, the low occurrence. Another cluster, some other part of the universe he was not nearing in that life. So the first time he had seen her disappear under the blue, felt the way it charged the tips of his fingers, it had been embarrassing and frightening and incredible, all at once. 

Thankfully, Reyes had thought he had gotten much better at maintaining a level of stamina when she really started to spark. 

Ariel leads, moving over him. Nails dig into the material by his head, and Reyes simply turns to kiss her wrist. His hands hold her thighs, hips, waist. Trailing and teasing while she rides him. Reyes doesn’t think, bordering on the line, one foot hovering. 

She’s warm and blinding and hot around him. Not just where they were joined, but the way she practically sears, sweat falling in beads from her neck. Her right hand had not moved from where she held it on his chest, above where his heart might sit, and Reyes would wonder later if he would feel that handprint for the rest of his life. That reminder, always there.

Twitching, Reyes feels how her hips begin to jerk, movements not nearly as fluid. With his right hand, he reaches between them, eyes trained on her as he presses against her clit. A muscle in her jaw twitches, brows furrow together, always concentrating, even during sex. Thumbing circles, Reyes meets her thrusts with as much eagerness as she offers. That carefully crafted facade of control begins to slip, allowing him to snatch it up. Reyes may not have been a biotic, manipulating mass effect fields to concentrate on parts of her body, but he wasn’t bad with his hands, and Ariel was hypersensitive at the best of times.

Whilst he’s not sure who came first, it takes him at least a full sixty seconds to regain his bearings, blinking away the white at the edge of his vision. Ariel had collapsed against him, head on his shoulder, breathing heavily. Bra strap falling down the tops of her arms, still twitching around his cock. She must have output a little more, had a bit more tension in her than she was willing to let on — at least he was aware that this was a _thing_ now, the first time it happened still fresh in his mind. 

“You feeling good?” his mouth can’t quite form words, but he manages to piece something together mostly intelligible (his ears had popped, and time would only tell how long it would be until that sensation left). 

“Yeah. I’m good.” Slowly but surely, Ariel sits up a little more, wince on her face as she shifts the both of them. “Just give me like… a minute.” 

After exactly a minute, Reyes greets her with a firm pat against her ass, laughing as she squeaks. Guiding her off his lap, sitting beside him, he takes a deep breath. Ariel has a leg still over him, and she grunts a bit, readjusting her underwear. Reyes could only imagine what they looked like, as he felt no need to immediately cover himself, shirt still firmly pushed up, Ariel fanning herself, lazy grin on her face. When he leans down, to press a kiss to her hair, she sighs happily. Very happy, the both of them. Good, he thinks, and leans his head against the back of the lounge. _Good_.

Eyes slide shut. Not because he was tired (oh no, perhaps in another round), but he felt safe. Assured. 

Hearing her move on the lounge beside him, Reyes cracks his eyes open, to meet the soft curve of her lips, and even softer eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, and there was a lovely mark on her neck that would purple in an hour or so. Ariel was sitting on her knees beside him, one hand on his thigh, the other resting on his shoulder. 

Reyes snakes a hand around her waist, crushing her against him. There’s a shout of “Reyes!” that has him laugh, before he heaves her around, pressing her into the lounge once more. Above her, Reyes likes the way that her hair fans out against the red of the lounge. Likes how her skin practically hums under his touch, barely there touches of blue following each and every finger.

As he presses his lips to her forehead, temples, eyelids, cheeks, dragging himself along her jaw, Reyes thumbs the band of her underwear. Lowers himself, mouthing her skin, feeling it rise up to meet him with each breath she took. Meets the band of Ariel’s underwear, and grins. Tomorrow, they would worry about feelings, the Nexus, roles and responsibilities. _Tomorrow_.

**Author's Note:**

> [bgm: cockiness (i love it), rihanna, lmao]
> 
> so like, reyes removes his gloves when ryder is around, bc he likes being able to feel them under his hands mmk? 
> 
> i had to look up full body refs for his armour and even then it looks like a fkn jumpsuit so i just winged it. unnecessary jacket over a chest piece with attached arms, sewn in as opposed to hard suits. pauldrons too, but like, reyes rly wouldn't be up for long in a gunfight lmao (it rly does look like... a flight suit).
> 
> anyway,  
> i finally wrote r18 for them lmaooooo


End file.
